Blues News #3

By Andrew Allsman| Posted: October 25th, 2011| Contact

Photo by: TSNPhotography

Backes and Perron injury updates, ownership situation, Brian Elliot, and more included in today's Blues News.

David Perron

David Perron's status is probably the most asked upon topic for the Blues. The Forward has been out since last November with a concussion. Now he is inching closer to returning. Perron has been consistently practicing, and is now participating in full team practices. He is of course, wearing a red "no contact" jersey, but its nice to see him out there participating. Perron is still not in game shape as he has admitted to, but he is getting closer. Jeremy Rutherford reported that he will be making the trip with the team, but obviously will not play. I have heard that he still isn't 100% as he says some days are better than others, but that is to be expected. Before he can play he still has to be cleared for contact, and until he takes that first hit, it is hard to predict how he will react.

David Backes

Obviously the big story yesterday was the announcement that David Backes is recovering very well from the hit he took in Philadelphia Monday. I don't think fans were surprised to find out that Backes had been taken out of the game after the hit, in fact Im sure they expected it as the Blues don't have the best of luck when it comes to injuries. Fans are without a doubt relieved to hear that Backes is expected to play Monday and that he is recovering very well. Backes reports having concussion symptoms from the hit, but they subsided quickly and he isn't expected to miss any games.



Ownership

Not much news on the ownership front this week. Andy Strickland wrote today that Hulsizer may have pulled his original offer, but he supposedly still remains optimistic that he will purchase team. Not sure as to why Hulsizer would have pulled his offer, but I still expect a deal to be done soon as long as Hulsizer doesn't change his mind.



Other

Elliot expected to play Wednesday....

Obviously nothing is set in stone, but it is hard to not expect the Blues to put Elliot back in net on Wednesday. Elliot is coming off of a huge win against the Flyers in which he played very well and contributed heavily to the Blues 4-2 win. In his 3 starts with the Blues, Elliot is 3-0-0 with a .935 sv%. These stats make it very hard to play Halak who has failed to prove he is a true number one goaltender. I would expect Halak to play Friday against the Flames whom he has already beaten, and besides I don't think it would be wise to sit a "number one" netminder for a long stretch of time.



Oshie Benched

As most people already know, Oshie was benched for the entire 2nd period in Saturday's game vs. the Flyers. Payne never really elaborated, but from what I understand, it was because Oshie turned the puck over while trying to enter the opponent's zone instead of  getting the puck in deep. My thoughts on this are: obviously you have to listen to the coach, and if you fail to do so then yes you should be benched but with that being said, I am not in complete aggreeance with Payne. If Payne's idea of "getting the puck in deep" consists of dumping the puck in and hoping the forecheck is good enough to get the puck, then Oshie is in the right in my opinion. I have said before that this team needs to use the skill of player's like Oshie to get creative with the puck. Throwing the puck in is not being creative, and makes it very hard to consistently create scoring chances. Oshie who happens to be a very good dangler, is one of the players that needs to use his ability to carry pucks into the zone to create scoring chances so I would be encouraging him to get creative with the puck, not benching him. These are just my thoughts on the matter, and maybe Payne wasn't talking about dumping the puck in, and even if he was, you still have to listen to your coach, but I can definitely see two sides to this issue.



Things to watch for in game vs. Vancouver

• Can Elliot awe fans yet again?
• D'Agostini may be paired on 2nd line with Oshie and Berglund
• Stewart and Backes on same line (if they are) equals a lot of size
• How Backes performs after injury
• Can the Blues control the Sedin twins?